sabato 7 giugno 2014

In this double album, the greatest vocal artists of the present day offer their own vision of the singing of their legendary predecessor. Both male and female singers now undertake the task of bringing back to life the wondrous voices of their androgynous forebears, in music that is by turns unsettling, deeply moving and of a dizzying virtuosity.

The extraordinary adulation accorded to castrati during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries is still today one of the most fascinating phenomena in the history of music. During this golden age of the castrato, these male singers endowed with high voices that combined incredible refinement, amazing power and superhuman virtuosity took the musical world by storm. The whole of Europe was overcome by infatuation for these vocal prodigies. In the absence of the castrati themselves, the singers of today face the formidable challenge of reviving their repertoire. Both male and female singers now undertake the task of bringing back to life the wondrous voices of their androgynous forebears, in music that is by turns unsettling, deeply moving and of a dizzying virtuosity. In this double album, the greatest vocal artists of the present day offer their own vision of the singing of their legendary predecessors.

mercoledì 4 giugno 2014

The revival of Vivaldi's operas continues with L'incoronazione di Dario (The Coronation of Darius), which has been recorded several times. This release comes from a 2013 live performance in Bremen, Germany, very well recorded indeed by Naïve. The title might lead one to expect a solemn opera seria, but it almost immediately announces itself, with a sparkling duet as the first vocal number, as something different and unusual, a sort of dramedy about the competition for the hand of the daughter of a deceased Persian emperor. The plot proceeds in a series of snappy arias and recitatives, which sometimes interpenetrate in ariosos; the one at the beginning of the second act is an arioso dialogue that is especially elegantly handled. A few of the arias could be profitably discarded, but characteristic Vivaldian touches throughout include Oronte's harmonically daring aria "Non mi lusinga vana speranza" (Act II, scene 6, CD 2, track 10), nicely understated by mezzo-soprano Lucia Cirillo. The cast, with a top-flight group of Italian singers and the very hot Accademia Bizantina orchestra led by the very hot Ottavio Dantone, is generally very strong, although tenor Anders Dahlin in the title role seems underpowered for his surroundings. A worthwhile and even entertaining addition to a Baroque opera shelf.

martedì 3 giugno 2014

Jean-Marie Leclair is hardly the most typical composer from the late French Baroque: born and raised in Lyons rather than Paris, he was a professional dancer (and, indeed, lacemaker) before reaching his prime as a violinist; he spent much time out of France (including protracted stays in Turin and appointments in Holland and Spain); he became estranged from his second wife in his later years; and, most tantalizing of all, he was murdered in strange circumstances in his late sixties.

However, despite all these unusual factors he enjoyed an extremely successful career both as a performer and as a composer, with thirteen opuses printed before his death and two more posthumously. He found favour with the court of Louis XV and also worked for noble houses in The Netherlands and Spain.

It is clear from his music that Leclair was well acquainted with the remarkable violin writing of Locatelli, and the two had a celebrated contest in Germany. Certainly, there was no one else in France who matched both Leclair's virtuoso, idiomatic violin writing and his subtlety of compositional organization.